First shop accident: a hand tool!
Frank D. in Montreal
>Hi everyone,
I had my first shop accident yesterday. No big deal, I'm fine, but it came from a tool that I least expected to hurt myself with: a scrub plane! I was adjusting the blade with a plane hammer and, for some reason, I took my hand out from under the blade. It turned out that I hadn't gotten the wedge in as tightly as I should have, so the blade just slid out through the mouth. I had a reflex, like when I drop a glass: I stuck out my leg so the blade wouldn't hit the floor. It made a thud against my leg before falling to the floor (I was wearing shorts), at which point I thought I had a minor cut. I didn't feel a thing, but the blood started gushing out in spurts like in those Quentin Tarantino movies. I grabbed a shop towel and it was totally soaked in about 5 seconds. I told my wife to call an ambulance and I went through three shop towels and two hand towels, all totally soaked, heavy with blood. I was getting a little worried by the time I was on my third hand towel (now that's scary sharp!) but the bleeding subsided by the time the ambulance arrived. Eight hours in the emergency ward (plane blade cuts don't have a big priority...) and five stitches later I was at home.
All this to remind you to be careful with any tool that can cut! Arteries are never too far. I'm always careful with my power tools, but it's a hand tool that got me. Geeze.
Frank
